Thinking about becoming a van guy. Photo is illustrative only. I was thinking of going a bit subtler: Like, maybe a picture of a pirate captain sword-fighting Stalin aboard his ship in the middle of a lightning storm. I'm open to ideas, though.
Would you hire the driver of this van to defend your DUI?
2 years in ID. Had a great day then made the mistake of checking my email before bed. I missed a filing deadline and OC has filed a Motion for Default. I thought the deadline was Monday, my assistant never put it on the calendar, client thought it was due Monday and I didn’t double check, it was due a week ago. This OC has been a huge pain, we were trying to offer the settlement amount they asked for but OC wouldn’t answer and his overly-empowered “case manager” wanted me to talk settlement with her instead. Then they filed suit and demanded more money. Now I’m going to have to call OC in the morning and basically plead for them to withdraw it and give me an extension. This will be fun to explain to the Partner…
Someone comfort me please lol.
I’ve been a lawyer for 8 years. There has not been a year that I haven’t felt like I hate my job. I’ve worked at law firms and as in-house counsel. I thought going in-house would change my attitude, it didn’t as I feel less respected by business folks than firm clients. I also work after hours in house and sometimes have to bill.
I’ve had four family members ask me about going to law school and one of those four is currently in law school. I must make it look glamorous or easy, or perhaps my poker face is too good. I think all four family members would be making a mistake but don’t want to sound discouraging or like a hater.
I feel like I’m wasting the best years of my life chained to a desk. Not to mention the student loans one may rack up for a law degree just to be unsatisfied. Practicing law can be soul sucking and I’m looking forward to the day that I can use the funds I make practicing law to do something else that gives me more freedom and fulfillment. Also, like most careers who knows what the practice of law will look like in the next few years thanks to artificial intelligence (“AI”). Non-JDs can now just resort to ChatGPT and other AI platforms. I guess they’ll have to learn the hard way, or maybe they’ll like it as crazy as that sounds (trying to be a little positive here).
I’m so sick of these legal research companies and now AI companies that refuse to show you the subscription cost and instead they ask you to reach out to them for pricing. What do these cost you and how did you arrive at that price?
This is getting funnier by the minute
I recently received a call from a personal injury attorney claiming to be seeking my deposition on a case defended by a firm I was at for two months several years ago. I looked up the attorney and he is barred in my state so he’s apparently legit. However, I also looked up the case and it was filed in 2026. Moreover, I do not recognize the matter at all. I can’t imagine I would have any material information worth being deposed over.
Has anyone experienced this type of situation before?
I just don't know what to do anymore. I graduated from a top 25-30 law school in 2024 in the bottom 50% of my class (law school sucks, I made it suck more than it had to and continue to reap those consequences). I moved home to Nashville and missed licensure in TN by 1 point; sat again in February 2025 and became licensed in April.
I cannot find a job. Countless applications, a dozen or so interviews, but nothing. Not a single offer, not even a final stage interview as far as I am aware. I have rewritten my materials a million times, and the advice I can find online or get through the few connections I have is often contradictory. I have received little to no direct feedback about why I wasn't selected; the most common explanation I have received is that they are moving forward with "more experienced candidates". I know the market is tough right now, but I have to assume I'm the problem.
At this point I have a 2-year gap on my resume since I graduated. At what point does that become automatically disqualifying? Is it already? Do I need to start looking for JD-advantage/adjacent career options? Is it time to pivot?
Anybody else feel like they've slowly become the unofficial IT person at their firm? I don't mean like fixing the printer, I mean the person everyone asks when they can't figure out how to do something on their computer.
I'm a fifth year associate at a midsize firm. Somehow word got around that I'm "good with computers" because I set up a dual monitor once and knew how to merge PDFs without printing and rescanning them. Now I get pinged constantly. Partner down the hall can't figure out how to redline in Word. Another attorney keeps accidentally saving over old versions of documents and wants to know why her changes disappeared. Last week someone asked me to help them figure out why their e-filing kept getting rejected and it turned out they were uploading the wrong file type.
I honestly don't mind helping. But it's started eating into my actual billable work in a way that's hard to explain to anyone. You can't exactly put "taught Carol how to use Track Changes for the fourth time" on your timesheet. And the thing is, none of this is complicated stuff. It's basic document management, basic software. I walked past a paralegal's screen the other day and she had GitLaw open on one tab and like fourteen unsaved Word docs on another, and I just thought, we are all over the place as a profession when it comes to technology.
What gets me is that law school prepares you for exactly zero percent of the practical tech stuff you deal with every day. We had a whole semester on the Rule Against Perpetuities but nobody thought to mention "hey you should probably learn how to organize files so you don't lose a client's entire document history."
I'm not bitter about it, it's just funny. And a little exhausting. I keep thinking about whether I should put together some kind of informal training thing but then I imagine the attendance and enthusiasm level and I talk myself out of it.
Is this just a midsize firm thing or does everyone deal with this? Curious if bigger firms have actual support for this kind of stuff or if there's always just That One Person who becomes the reluctant help desk.
12 years practicing. I’m well and truly burned out. I’m in a non-reciprocal state so I can’t go anywhere far unless it’s profoundly lcol and I can find the time to get my head right. Maybe work something less high-pressure until I gather the stones to take another bar exam.
If anyone has switched their trajectory I’d love to hear it.
In California there's a 90-day rule that applies to matters under submission. I'm currently approaching 30 days since trial concluded.
What's the longest anyone has waited for a the court to issue a judgment following a bench trial?
Edit: Thanks for the responses. I'm trying to tell my client what to expect here and it's been a little challenging having never been in this procedural position very often. I'm afraid they will not be happy.
Can I wear a skirt or dress?
In February 2016, CJ Roberts circulated a memo to his colleagues bringing five stay applications against the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan — the EPA rule projected to reduce power-sector carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030. The D.C. Circuit had denied a stay eleven days earlier.
Roberts had had the briefing papers for approximately 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑑𝑎𝑦 when he recommended granting emergency relief anyway, concluding that the rule was "highly unlikely to survive" review and that allowing it to operate would produce irreversible economic harm.
Two fellow justices wrote back immediately: Elena Kagan called the posture "unprecedented" — the Court intervening before any appellate tribunal had reviewed the merits — and a third justice, probably Sotomayor, documented that the government's own economic projections, which Roberts had cited as evidence of harm, carried an explicit agency caveat that they were unsuited for near-term forecasting. Roberts had read the caveat. He used the numbers anyway.
Justices Breyer and Kagan both proposed less drastic alternatives — directing states to seek administrative extensions while the D.C. Circuit worked — and both documented the unusual nature of what Roberts was requesting.
Roberts replied that the rule was the "most expensive regulation ever imposed on the power sector" and that, absent immediate intervention, the EPA administrator's own words indicated the rule would be "baked into the system" before the Court could test its legality.
Anthony Kennedy provided the fifth vote with a four-sentence memo: a stay would be granted in four to six months anyway, so fairness counseled granting it now.
Gift Link.
It’s hilarious how many lawyers think they can just dip their toes into PI cause they see the big dollar signs. So let me get this straight…I get 100 bucks an hour to tell you how to do it and you get the fee? Lol.
Hello all:
This will be deleted within the next 24 hours but I am looking for insight after my yearly review. I am currently a salaried employee. I make 110k a year with a 12% bonus on any fees earned over 1 million. This is paid in one lump some at the end of the year. This does not include referral bonuses where I get 40% of the fee.
Offer A: increase my base to 125k everything stays the same.
Offer B
The boss wants to move the attorneys to a 100% commission plan. I would be the first associate. I would receive a draw of 80k payable weekly. I get a fee of 14% up to 1 mil and then 16% of anything over the mil. Commission is paid monthly. I would also get my commission earned for last quarter (about 25k). Referral fees were not discussed but I assume they remain. I have not received anything in writing as we are in the discussion phases.
This is my first full year with the firm. Recent turn over has afforded me the opportunity to grab some great cases. I am on track to do 2 mil + this year.
Next year I do not know what to expect but I am confident I can hit a million given the fact that I love what I do and can hustle. I am also frugal and will save a good bulk of my commission earned this year to cover the reduced pay every week.
I wanted to get everyone’s opinion on a regular salary vs commission with a draw and what you all would recommend. TIA
Hey all,
I had posted before regarding my current litigation role at a boutique firm being hell. I had cheated death the year before in my mid 20’s by surviving an advanced stage cancer diagnosis. I realized life’s too short to be willing to throw my present life away and it’s time to act like someone that’s been where I’ve been. Time is the most valuable thing we have (the time we can’t bill for).
I put in my notice (gave them a month) with nothing lined up. No bad blood, they understood and offered me no incentive to stay. I have a decent amount in savings so I’m going to travel the world a bit and look for employment in the meantime.
Enjoy your lives. Since joining this group, while comforting to know my situation was common, it’s equal amounts heartbreaking.
Good luck to you all and see you somewhere at the end of this journey 🤙
Also if you know of any remote work in the meantime like doc review to do on my travels or have any health insurance related advice please let me know! God bless.
Any other California lawyers here of 20+ years remember the one BarBri lecturer who always said sarcastically "good ideaaaaa?" as a catch phrase during his lectures? I cannot for the life of me remember his name. Every lawyer of my era that I know in California remembers him, but none of us can think of his name.
UPDATE: IDENTIFIED BY WILDFLOWER923! It's Prof. Peter Honigsberg! Thanks everybody!
2nd year working ID. I make very well above market here $179k+, the work life balance is decent, and pretty much run the cases on my own (no trial experience yet). I practice tort and commercial litigation. 1900 req.
However, I feel like I’m not cut out for the billable hour grind. I used to work in sales whether retail through college or SaaS after college. Value and income was driven by results, not hours. Same with my education, I didn’t grind hours, I studied efficiently.
I’ve had tons of big law recruiter reach out to me for commercial litigation roles. My earning potential and career advancement would be a big jump, but I’d be billing more.
I’ve also been heavily considering some sort of Plaintiffs work, not just employment or personal injury.
Another dream job would be to work in entertainment or with talent to some degree. I love advocacy, especially when end goals are the same rather than contentious.
Has anyone ever jumped ship to any of these, or to something else, from ID? What was that process like for you?
An Opinion from the Court entering sanctions and awarding fees and costs against an obstructionist, gaslighting, pompous, sexist, unethical, arrogant opposing counsel. 😊
If I’m answering emails at my kid’s soccer game, there is no balance. We need to stop pretending that being "always-on" is a choice and admit it’s the new baseline for the industry. Thoughts?